I carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)
- E.E. Cummings

Book Reviews and a Good Smellin' Mystery

I finally spent the last bit of gift certificates I had to Amazon thanks to my lovely mother and brother for Christmas (and quitting smoking!).

To go along with my new gardening kick I picked up the following:

McGee & Stuckey's Bountiful Container: Create Container Gardens of Vegetables, Herbs, Fruits, and Edible Flowers

I really like this book. The first portion goes into detail on exactly what you need to start gardening with and how to go about it. I'm pretty much inept when it comes to this area so I needed a good, solid background of information before I started getting my hands dirty. The rest of the book goes into detail on different varieties of veggies, herbs and fruits. I've already referenced it countless times while planting my seeds and checking to see if they should have sprouted yet!


The Backyard Homestead: Produce all the food you need on just a quarter acre!

This book didn't go into as much detail per crop as the first one did, but it contained much more information on actually homesteading from your backyard. There was great information on how to make beer/wine, diagrams of utilizing your space effectively, how to prepare meat (vegetarian here!) and much more. Since a good portion of this book does focus on raising and eating meat it's not as informative to me, but I really liked how they showed the possibility of harvesting 1400 eggs, 50 lbs of wheat, 60 lbs of fruit, 2000 lbs of veggies, and 75 pounds of nuts on just 1/4 an acre!

Finally - the $1,000,000 question of the day!
Le Bf introduced me to the most AMAZING smelling tree/giant bush thing ever and we have no clue what it is! Any help i.d.'ing said plant will be returned with our unwavering love and devotion :D

Retail Therapy

So I just got back from viewing a house that I was *very* interested in purchasing and the adorable elderly gentlemen that showed us the property informed me that there was an offer made on it yesterday. That definitely doesn't mean it's sold for sure - but it's not a great sign.

So - to make myself feel better I'm shopping around on etsy :) Here are some of my current crushes!


Forever in my Heart Secret Love; http://KnotOriginal.etsy.com


Item link: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=38634012
Two hearts connected, hand embroidered pendant; http://SNoU.etsy.com


Melamine Tea or Coffee Cup Set; http://AMradio.etsy.com


Je t'adore Shirt; http://neenacreates.etsy.com


Personalized postcard pillow; http://Olive.etsy.com

Lettuce and why I love my house

After checking daily (okay, sometimes hourly) I've finally seen my first sprout! The lettuce seeds are starting to peek through the top of the soil and I couldn't be more giddy - it's been 5 days so their a bit early..hopefully this is a sign I'm not a massive gardening failure like I once believed :)



As I was heading back in I had to snap a pic of this wicked vine that's crawling up onto the lattice above the patio - and it inspired me to take a few photos of why I absolutely adore the house I'm in (A 116 year old Victorian).



These are the actual keys to one of the rooms upstairs


Uber creepy masks we found in the storage room!


Light switch that came in the guest bathroom


Stained glass window (one of two on the first staircase)


It truly is my dream home and I consider myself incredibly lucky to be living in it!

Fairhope Part 2

Couldn't stay away so we went and stayed a night there. We stayed at the Hampton Inn which is in the heart of downtown and within walking distance of basically everything.



The staff was very friendly and the rooms we're beautiful. Each room had a different picture next to the room number and I found it quite ironic that we we're stuck with this one ;)



We ate at Tamara's - I say ate but really we just shared some appetizers (which were delicious!) and had a bottle....and a half....of wine (did I mention how nice it was to have a hotel within walking distance lol).


We went to the Fairhope library (I'm a massive book nerd) and I was floored with how nice it was! SO much better than the one here in Pensacola and I could tell it really was a community center with events and tons of people there utilizing the resources it offered. The greatest thing though was stumbling upon two mini dollhouses that I believe were decorated to act as mini version of two shops in town. They we're ADORABLE! My favorite was the bookstore




And what's better than a mini bookstore? A mini playboy!


Speaking of bookstores - they have the cutest little family-run one called Page and Pallette (http://www.pageandpalette.com) that hosts a wide variety of events and authors there weekly. They just had the author of 'Will Jesus Buy Me a Double Wide' there and Trisha Yearwood will be there soon to sign copies of her new cookbook. Not that I really care at all about country, or need cookbooks lol, but it's neat what big names they get coming through there!

This is a picture of their coffee shop, Latte Da, the book store is on the other side and I believe the art supplies are on the second floor.

Photo courtesy of: Bill Starling for the New York Times

We ended our time with a soon-to-be-traditional picnic in the park, an almost nap under a lovely tree, and stroll on the piers.

Fairhope, I do love thee.

Gulf Shore Zoo

Part one of our mini-vacay was a stop at the Gulf Shore Zoo in Gulf Shores, Al.
http://www.alabamagulfcoastzoo.org/

It was a very well managed facility (unlike others closer to home!) albeit a bit small.

We we're grilled by goats (I say 'we', but he was clearly more interested in someone else!)


I was terrified of the turtle - I swear their much more intimidating in person!
{and much faster than I anticipated!}


We each took a different side of this poor peacock and harassed it verbally


The highlight of the trip was watching these squirrels 'do it'...I tried to get a better picture but a cute family started walking by and I didn't want to look like the freak taking squirrel sex photos.

How to make Garden Markers

As a novice gardener I knew I'd need some sort of plant markers for all my herbs and veggies this season as I probably could not identify them to save my life. I came up with this idea as a pretty inexpensive and quick way to make some fairly adorable garden markers :)

Materials needed:
Empty seed packets
Balsa wood (I got 1/4"x3"x36" for the main part and just small rods for the sticks)
Mod Podge
Glue
Scissors
Optional: Polyacrylic



Step 1: Cut balsa wood into 2"x3" rectangles (the scissors cut mine okay with a little force)


Optional step: Let kitty have fun with long stick


Step 2: Cut out the front picture of the seed packet and the name of the seed. Using the mod podge glue the name in the middle of the picture - and glue the entire thing to one of the pieces of balsa wood. Cover with 1 coat of mod podge, let dry, and apply a second coat.


Step 3: To further protect from the elements (and because I already had this on hand) I applied a coat of polyacrylic. I'm not sure if this step is necessary, especially if your plants will be somewhat protected from rains, but I wanted to ensure they would be water and fade resistant as much as possible. Apply it as you do mod podge, but with gloves on and outside as the fumes are quite strong!


Step 4: No picture on this but cut the long sticks into 4-5" pieces and glue to the back of the balsa wood pieces. I used E6000 glue (usually for jewelry) but I'm sure any other strong adhesive would work fine!

Ta Da!


Not the fanciest things ever - but they get the job done :)